Great analysis of Hinrich and I particularly enjoyed your depiction of Jamison as a pro, but not a leader. Captain Jamison’s frustration with and consistently negative treatment of the “young guys” was a key factor in the lack of their development. How long did it take for Blatche to bust out once Jamison was gone? Yeah, about 2 seconds.

Your analysis of the Hinrich cap hit is right on the mark, but some of us were making that point on draft night while the rest of the lynch mob was ready to march to Ernie Grunfeld’s front lawn. This is not new analysis, it’s just that everyone disagreed at that time.

Pro okay; but 6’ 3’ and not terribly atheletic. $8M for a back-up. Why not a young athletic SF who can grow with Wall, Blatche and McGee?

In EG, we trust. NOT!

Either use the cap space on a free agent (bad) or use it on this hinrich trade. Of the two options, you puruse the hinrich trade. However, there are two other options. Don’t use the cap space or use the cap space in a different trade. It seems very likely that we could’ve used the cap space for a better asset while taking back no long-term dollars.

But, as you point out, we can still have cap space next season, ergo not a bad use of cap space. This ignores the extra 8 million we would have if we had done a deal with no long-term salary. A decent amount of cap space is good, a lot of cap space is better.

Oh, but Kirk brings proffesionalism. Correct. However, this means two things. One, that he is a good guy who benefits the locker room. (This is important, but blown out of propotion by the media. They really love pros because they give them good access). Secondly, that his talents off the court are starting to eclipse his talents on the court. When the first thing a player is known for is his proffesionalism, you know he isn’t on the team/court for his basketball contributions. The wizards over payed for a decling back-up pg, who is proffesional. While I cannot research this right now (I’m one of the lucky ppl without power and my blackberry’s browser sucks), I will bet you that their is a free-agent pg who can bring proffesionalism to the wizards without incurring any long-term costs to the wizards.

So to recap, the wizards overpayed for an asset (seraphin), hurt future flexibility (hinrich’s contract) to get a commodity that is cheap on the open market. Look, I think Ernie was right to eschew a big or middle free agent. I think he was right to use boyd. I think he was right to find a mentor for Wall, a true pro. But his execution was terrible. He could’ve done all those things while getting better assets in return without compromsing any long-term cap flexibilty.

That is where he has failed, not once but many times. This is why Ernie is a terrible GM who should be relieved of his duties.

happens to be what Del Negro called Hinrich repeatedly during his tenure as bulls coach. I think it stuck and became a nickname/running joke and now everyone’s calling him “Kurt”

Ya gotta like Mr Hinrich at least a little, and I am glad to see Mike has come around a bit after the press conference.

Now if Seraphin becomes the agile bruiser up front that management expects him to be, this deal with the Bulls for the rights to Veermenko gets right up into and possibly beyond Caron for Kwame territory.

If you are going to make a fairly nuanced argument that Jamison was a “pro” but not a “leader” (not one with which I disagree mind you), I think it is then hard to automatically brand Wall a “leader” before he has played a single game that counts. Signs point to him being a leader, but let’s not brand the bull before it’s born.

Kirk may be overpaid but it not like the wizards need the cap space at the moment and his deal is up in 2 years. Hinrich barely missed out on being 2nd team all defense last year and he wasnt even a starter when the bulls had john salmons. He brings tough defense, leadership, experience, versatility, and intelligence. And believe it or not he can knock down some shots. His shot does come and go but he is the bulls all-time 3 point leader and that has to say something. He is the perfect glue guy for this team. A tough defender who plays hard, doesnt make too many mistakes, can play more than one position, and can make shots when needed

In the likely event that Arenas is not playing for the Wizards for a meaningful chunk of the season, Hinrich gives us a quality SG to pair with Wall. It’s fairly important, considering Arenas’ physical and mental history, and that the team wants to trade him. Management can’t really talk about that potential benefit, but this move is going to look much smarter if they manage to trade Arenas before Hinrich’s contract is up.

OKC has shown how you build through the draft. You do it with lottery picks. They started with a #2 (Durant) and #5 (Greene) and the next year I believe Westbrook was top 10 pick and following year with Harden who was a #4 pick (which I’m still not sure about). And after making the playoffs this past year, they were able to get into the lottery again. It seems to me that EG is making the same mistake that Cleveland made with LeBrone by not getting him another high lottery pick to run with. I like Gil being there, however, Wall needs someone who he can play and grow with. Not a $17 million back-up point guard, not a French project at 17 and not an undersized PF at 23.

EG needed to get another lottery pick and he failed. Now he’s trying to put lipstick on a pig by tell us this guy Kirk is just want we need or by saying he was able to trade for another high lottery pick. BS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

he started 50+ games last year and averaged over 30 mins a game..a sign that he is more then just a rotational player (for a playoff team)